Good Signs from Obama

Good Signs from Obama

By Santiago Montenegro

Although Barack Obama hasn’t clearly laid out the political path he will take upon entering the White House, the character of those that he has appointed so far offer a hopeful sign of things to come.

He has chosen individuals with an excellent academic background and a lot of experience in public service. He has sacrificed, at least momentarily, not only the leftist leanings of his campaign but also many people close to him in order to make room for many staff members from the Clinton administration.

For this reason, with a hint of sarcasm, James Carville recalled the saying “a campaign is a time to stab your enemies. A transition is a time to stab your friends.” Timothy Geithner, the current president of the New York Federal Reserve, will lead the economic team as the newly appointed Treasury Secretary. Larry Summers, who held this position at the end of the Clinton era, will also have a leadership role as the director of the National Economic Council, or the equivalent to our Conpes.

These officials are considered politically moderate and thus the news of their appointments has been very well received among big corporations and financial markets. Both of them are firm believers in free commerce and a free market, which is also very good news for us due to their potential support for the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Colombia and the United States. However, beyond their experience in the public sector and academics, Geithner, Summers, and other possible appointments such as Bill Richardson to the Secretary of Commerce, all share a strong personality and voice.

In my opinion, it is just these qualities that best express the philosophy and character of the new President. Obama isn’t naming one of his best friends, nor solely those who flattered, served or wooed him. On the contrary, he is appointing people that won’t remain silent in his cabinet but voice their opinion, and will do it strongly, people who will move their own weight in the face of public opinion. It’s possible, for example, that Obama’s sturdy opponent during the campaign, Hillary Clinton, will receive a nomination. Furthermore, he has decided to keep Robert Gates, the current Secretary of Defense, as a friendly gesture to the Republicans and a symbol of national unity.

Therefore, Obama’s governing style is reminiscent of other presidents’, such as that of Lincoln or Kennedy. Like them, Obama not only conveys enormous security in himself but also something even more important: he is saying that he does not know everything; that in spite of his firm principles and a great mandate to lead the country, he does not hold a monopoly over the answers and solutions to every problem; that he needs and calls for criticism from inside as well as outside his own administration. By adopting this attitude, Obama is applying one of the few really great ideas produced in the 20th century: progress is only achieved through trial and error.

To learn from our errors there must be criticism. To generate criticism it is necessary to have an open society with a government that not only tolerates it but stimulates it. This principle facilitated the creation of liberal democracy and the defeat of fascism and totalitarianism, and also paved the way to some of the greatest scientific advances of the twentieth century. Obama is off to a good start.